Q: Ok. How can you run a site that sends out curses via e-mail and not know who is sending them? Can't you get their e-mail address or something?
A: Simply by visiting a site using your web browser, it is impossible for anyone to record your e-mail address unless you give it willingly. It would be possible for us to request people to enter their own e-mail address before sending a curse, but it would be very easy to lie about this. People could enter any e-mail address they wanted, and we would have no way to verify it. Plus, this would defeat the entire purpose of the site.

Q: Wait. I've heard of something called an IP address. Isn't that another way to identify people on the internet?
A: An IP address is a multi-digit number used to identify each computer on the internet. It is possible to collect your computer's IP address when you visit a web page. However, this information is rarely useful. Most internet Service Providers (companies like AOL, MSN, Earthlink etc.) assign users a dynamic IP address when they connect to the internet via modem. This means that every time you hang-up and re-dial you are assigned a new IP address from a pool of addresses the ISP owns. This way the ISP doesn't have to have a separate IP for every single subscriber, only those connected at that time. So in this case, by knowing the IP address you might be able to determine what ISP the person was using when they visited the page, but not who they were, and certainly not their e-mail address.

Many ISPs and business offices also use proxy servers. These are used to serve multiple users over a single IP address. Proxy servers make everyone connected through them seem to have the same IP address. This thwarts any attempts to identify a specific person.

In very few cases people have fixed IP addresses that can be traced directly back to a specific computer, but this doesn't mean they can be identified. Just because we know that a person at IP address X visited the site, that doesn't mean we know who they are, or what their e-mail address is. By doing a reverse lookup on a fixed IP address, guesses can sometimes be made as to the person's identity, but this is very unreliable and many times impossible.

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What this all means is that we are unable to provide the IP addresses of any curse senders because we do not know this information. Please do not e-mail us requesting IP address information for curse senders because we will simply direct you back to the information on this page.

Q: How can you in good conscience create a system where people are allowed to send messages anonymously? Isn't that illegal or something?
A: You may not realize it, but there are many sites that offer to send anonymous e-mail messages. Simply go to your favorite search engine and look for "anonymous e-mail" to find many of these services.

Obviously when people can send whatever anonymous e-mail they like, things can get out of hand quickly. There are many hurtful comments that can be made to really upset others. This is not what PinStruck is about.

With PinStruck, the site is intended for fun, with a bit of spooky thrown in. We purposely do not allow people to write their own voodoo messages because this leaves the door wide open for some downright nasty and threatening anonymous comments.

If you were truly frightened or angered by a curse message you received through PinStruck then we do apologize. The internet is a big place, and there are many things that each of us may like or dislike. PinStruck's humor is a bit dark for some people's liking and we understand that. However, we are not going to shut the site down because some people don't like it.

PinStruck is 100% legal. There are no United States federal or state laws preventing the site's existence or actions. If you feel otherwise, we encourage you to look into the matter further and bring any issues to our attention.